html may occur over and over again, and yet the Finder somehow figures out which application goes with which file and produces an icon to match. psd), and can export image files in a variety of formats, including JPEG (.

An application such as Photoshop can create standard Photoshop files (. In the real world, many file extensions are quite common, and many are associated with a wide array of applications. It would be all well and good if each file extension told you exactly which program created it and could edit or view it. In these steps, you’ll build Desktop items via the command line and allow the Finder to select icons to display based on file extensions: It takes just a few seconds to see the Finder’s icon-association behavior in action. The Finder uses these extensions when choosing icon representations. They’re used in Windows and Unix as well as on the Mac. Extensions provide the most common way to differentiate file types for most computers. doc offer a basic distinction between file types. The first and simplest factor for assigning icons is found in a file’s extension. In Mac OS X, the icons for plaintext files do not look like rich-text files, and both differ from Microsoft Word files. Even when files are essentially the same thing, such as text, they appear with distinct looks. Sometimes an icon offers a hint of a file’s contents. Bold, vivid icons often reveal a file’s type and its creator. The images reveal themselves at a glance.Įach file on your computer presents the world with visual clues. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at the large images in the Finder’s Icon view, or smaller pictures in the List or Column view. A quick peek is all it takes to distinguish one type of file from another. You’ll probably see image files, documents, playlists, and programs. Open a Finder window and take a look through the kinds of files found on your computer.

Mac create new file extensions